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Local Winery to Host Fundraiser for Man with Terminal Brain Cancer

SHIPPENVILLE, Pa. (EYT) – A community tip donation day will be held at Deer Creek Winery on June 15 to benefit a local man recently diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.

The fundraiser is for 21-year-old Jedediah Brewer, a 2017 graduate of Clarion Area High School.

Deer Creek Winery, of Shippenville, has stepped up to help the Brewer family by organizing a fundraiser to assist them with expenses.

The fundraiser will be held this Saturday at the winery from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Donations in the form of tips to wait staff will be collected throughout the day. Although it is business as usual at the winery, at the end of the day, the wait staff will donate all of the money received to the Brewer family.

According to Jody Hunsberger, Outside Sales Administrator at the winery, Deer Creek’s employees and members of management brainstormed the idea. This will be the first fundraiser of its kind to be held at the winery.

“The event that we are doing is from our employees themselves. They will be donating everything from those tip jars to the family. Any gratuity that we receive will all go to his family,” Hunsberger told exploreClarion.com.

“A lot of us here are parents with children around Jed’s age, and we wanted to do something on a more personal level.

“It is our staff who is the driving force behind this, they are really passionate about (the fundraiser).”

Deer Creek is not the only local business to help raise funds for the Brewer family.

Pizza Hut in Clarion held a fundraiser night on June 12, and there will be a spaghetti benefit dinner at the Emlenton Bingo Hall on July 14 at 5:00 p.m. There will also be a bike show at Sportsman’s Paradise on June 29 from 12 p.m. – 4 p.m.

One of Jedediah’s friends, Conner Henry, said that friends and family have been overwhelmed by the support received from the community.

“I don’t think Jed could even wrap his mind around how much support he has right now. I knew that people would be trying to help and have some fundraisers, but I’m just shocked at the amount of support he has,” said Henry. “I’m just in awe about the amount of support coming out of this little town, he’d be totally baffled right now if he could understand what was going on.”

Henry, Matt LaVan, and Blake Woolam, also recently helped organize a ceremony on June 7 where Jedediah completed his life long dream of becoming an honorary inductee in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard.

“Jed is one of the strongest kids that I know, he is one tough cookie,” Woolam said at the ceremony.

Photo by Dave Cyphert of ProPoint Media Photography.

The fundraiser will be held at Deer Creek Winery located at 3333 Soap Fat Road, Shippenville, Pa.

All proceeds will be used to help pay for medical expenses incurred by the Brewer family.